|
September 5 , 2007
as seen in "Food For Thought" at FlyLady.net
by Leanne Ely
Dear Friends,
I have said before that the family dinner table is a sacred place. A
place that should be set aside for the ritual of dinner, family
fellowship and connecting with those you love most. But there is
something else to be said about that table that needs saying and that
is that the structure and routine of a regular mealtime means a whole
lot less stress.
We creative types (SHE's) often equate structure and routine with
stifling bondage. We think our wild, think outside the box mentality
and living with great abandon is what makes us different and unique
and gives us that creative edge. As one who has been there/done that,
I would agree to the edge part anyway…it does give us an edge, but not
in a good way.
When we don't know what's for dinner, we cringe when asked what is
going to be on the table that night. When we don't have a plan, don't
have groceries and are fresh out of ideas, we feel inadequate and
incapable. Something as simple as feeding the family is beyond our
grasp and it the frustration and stress mounts.
The first step in "recovery" so to speak is to recognize that giving
into structure doesn't mean you're abandoning your creativity. On the
contrary, it means you're giving yourself MORE freedom to be the
creative genius that you are, guilt free! And when the guilt is gone,
the pressure is removed and stress is magically eradicated from your
life. It's amazing how much stress that little question, "what's for
dinner?" will generate!
The next step is a plan. That's easy—with your family's help, write
down their top favorite meals (eliminating of course,
Thanksgiving-type preparations, LOL) and from there, make a grocery
list. This can be your perpetual menu/grocery list. You should get
about 10 to 20 meals from their suggestions, round them out with
veggies and salads and make your list. This will be the most
time-consuming part of your meal planning, but then you will have it
and can rotate the meals for variety.
Remember to add such things as seasonability into your planning—you
don't want to be making roast chicken in the middle of summer with
inadequate air conditioning. Nor do you want to be grilling steaks out
on the back deck when it's 30 degrees.
Add too, to the equation, meal planning that fits your family's
busiest nights. That's when you whip out the crock pot in the morning
and come home to a dinner that merely needs a table set and a salad
tossed to complete it.
Dinner isn't rocket science, but it does need planning to get it
launching night after night. If you want someone to do the work for
you, I'm here to help! You can get a free Menu-Mailer from
SavingDinner.com and lots of other goodies too. Hope that helps get
your dinner on the table this week!
Love,
Leanne
|
